Frankie wrote:Joe,I just watched the tutorials you posted above. I highly recommend them for someone like myself whose new to Blufftitler. Just watching someone going through the motions of using the program was very helpful. I have a couple of questions from them. You use png instead of jpg files. Are png better with the Blufftitler program? Also, I noticed that you said to set the show to normal, not high, with the eps tutorial. Is that true for all shows? One more question regarding exporting as an avi file. I tried saving to compressed with transparency in hopes that I could then put something behind my show, but no dice. I think I can get around that by masking in Producer, but what does the transparency feature give me when creating an avi? I know you touched on it in your earlier post regarding making a title with a transparent background. How do you do that? Forgive me for being so dense but could you elaborate a bit on alpha channels and your use of transparent frames. Also, when you save as compressed does it effect the smooth rendering of your avi on playback? If not, why would I ever want to use the uncompressed feature?(I guess that was a bit more than one more question.)Thanks again. As always, you're really great to share your knowledge with those of us muddling through the technological jungle and quite often becoming stuck in the murk and mire (or should I say the eps and the avi).Frankie

Just having my tea and quickly checked the forum

png vs jpg - png is not necessarily better than jpg. Just more convenient. PNG files will allow transparency, jpg won't. So I tend to use png's whether there is transparency or not. It has become a habit, that's all. And sometimes jpg's will have artifacts depending on how compressed they are. That's not a good thing

eps, normal not high - for other shows you can use high. I have found with eps, if you add a texture it's necessary to size and move the texture to fit the eps figure. With high quality mode, it takes a long time to make a small move. In normal mode it's done in real time. I suppose that once the texture is in place you could then set your show to high quality.

output avi with transparency - I don't use it, period. You said you want to output an avi with transparency so you could put something behind it in ProShow. I put the "something" behind it in BluffTitler. And then output a regular avi to ProShow. IOW, do the complete effect in BT. It accepts video or stills, so why not do it that way? Now BT is a little hinky with videos. You can't scrub through it to find an exact spot. And I asked michiel about it and it probably will be that way for quite a while. But I work with it and have no problems.

alpha channel and transparent frames - people who use really high end software will work with numbered frames instead of a video. I'm not one of those people but I know the logic behind why they prefer numbered frames. I use numbered frames routinely in Particle Illusion because it's just easier to do it that way in that program. There are situations where numbered frames would be better than a video. If you absolutely positively must have a video with alpha channels then you can output numbered png files instead of using avi with transparency. Bring it into Proshow with the appropriate time length of .033 seconds per frame and add your background to all of them.

compressed vs uncompressed - I have recently started using the xvid codec for compressed avi's. The quality is excellent. The file size is very small. It's the free competitor to divx. (xvid is divx spelled backwards ) Where an uncompressed avi might be 50MB, xvid could be as small as 5MB. ProShow chokes on those big files. Eventually it works but it makes huge files if you post to Presenter and that causes long buffer times for folks who want to watch your show. There are also other very good codecs like HuffyUV and Lagarith. They are lossless codecs but their files are somewhat larger than xvid. I will use uncompressed avi's if I intend to take the output of BT and do something else to it in another program. Otherwise compressed avi is the way to go. For me, it does not affect the smooth rendering on playback.

making a title with transparent background - If it's a still title BT will automatically make the background transparent no matter what color you use. If it's a video I just add the background in BT and I'm done with it. It's been a long time since I outputted anything in BT with a transparent background. It should have worked for you, but the edges of the text might look jaggedy. If you want me to look at it just PM me and we can set up a way to transfer files.

When you are truly comfortable with who you are,not everybody will like you.But you won't care about it one bit.Unk.

Hello,I just purchased this amazing program and was hoping to put an avi in Producer for a slide show project that's due tomorrow.I bought a template pack but can't find any instructions on how to install it into the program.And when I try to create a preset show the text is way too big in the window but changing the font didn't do anything.Can anyone help me with this? They are a bit slow getting back to me and I need to do this today.Thanks so much! Eyelene

The template packs should just contain BluffTitler show files, iow, files that have the bt extension. Go to File > Open Show and navigate to where you downloaded or installed the template pack. Then open the show you want to use. For more help go here http://www.outerspace-software.com/usingtemplates.html

For the text, there's a number of ways to change the size. You can change the font size or text size. You can also change the character size. Select the layer containing the text then adjust the Property sliders to make the changes.

A few things you should know. Michiel is the "go to" guy for BluffTitler and his father just passed away. So he will probably be preoccupied for a few days. Also, outerspace software is located in Denmark so the time zone difference will affect how quickly you get replies to questions. You also might want to go the Gallery and post questions there. It's at The Gallery. It's very likely that the person who created the templates you bought will see your post and give you a quicker reply.

Joe

added: P.S. I know you're in a time crunch, but I hope you will take the time, later on, to really learn the ins and outs of BluffTitler. It can be a great addition to your ProShow projects.

When you are truly comfortable with who you are,not everybody will like you.But you won't care about it one bit.Unk.

Thank you so much! I am going to read this in a little while after I put this slide show together.I'm having trouble figuring out how to remove a style that the wizard applied in Producer.Thought I could do it faster and then just change the styles I don't like but when I clicked on remove layers it removed everything including my image.I know I should probably post this as another question but you are so nice for replying to my previous question I'm hoping you may be able to tell me what to do. It has to be easy and I'm so frustrated

Thank you Joe!I actually just figured it out on my own so I'm very proud of myself All I had to do was double click on the slide and then change the style.Up until now I was deleting everything and then bringing my image back into the program.This slide show is going to keep me up all night. There are over 600 pictures and videos yikes!Luckily I will be able to use the multiple image styles to help me along.I can't wait to play with Bluff Titler. It looks like such an amazing program and I'm all about 3D

heckydog wrote:This one shows how to create a png file and move the anchor point, or center of rotation, for use in BluffTitler. It then explains how to make a pub sign swing properly as a 3D video. It's pretty easy to do and a great effect to use in ProShow.

This one is the filmstrip demo. It also requires some prep work in a graphics program. At the time I was using PSE 5 but I have since "graduated" to PS CS3. But any program should work fine as long as you're familiar with whatever one you like to use. It then takes your png file and shows how to animate it in BT. The difficult part here is the graphics prep, not BluffTilter.

http://www.romskye.com/Site/howtogb/howto.php Go here and look for #43. It's only a few numbers from the top. There's also a zip containing the pictures I used in the tutorial if you want to follow along that way. It's around 34MB, and I I don't remember how long it is, sorry.

heckydog wrote:This one shows how to create a png file and move the anchor point, or center of rotation, for use in BluffTitler. It then explains how to make a pub sign swing properly as a 3D video. It's pretty easy to do and a great effect to use in ProShow.

This one is the filmstrip demo. It also requires some prep work in a graphics program. At the time I was using PSE 5 but I have since "graduated" to PS CS3. But any program should work fine as long as you're familiar with whatever one you like to use. It then takes your png file and shows how to animate it in BT. The difficult part here is the graphics prep, not BluffTilter.

http://www.romskye.com/Site/howtogb/howto.php Go here and look for #43. It's only a few numbers from the top. There's also a zip containing the pictures I used in the tutorial if you want to follow along that way. It's around 34MB, and I I don't remember how long it is, sorry.

LIke I said, I'll answer any questions I can to the best of my ability,

Joe

NONE OF THESE LINKS WORK :-{

Pub Sign - that tutorial is now obsolete because you can change the anchor points in PSP now. In 2008 you couldn't so the tutorial showed a workaround.

Filmstrip demo from romskeye site- That site has been gone for a few years since the original owner passed away. I don't have the video any longer but the filmstrip option is a feature of BluffTitler. If you don't have BT, the demo won't be of any use to you. Basically, it lets you make short videos like animated gifs.

3D Object tutorial - don't have that one any longer and I can't be sure what it was about. But BluffTitler is a true 3D program so it may have been about how to create a video in BT with 3D objects and import them into PSP.

Sorry I couldn't be more help but at least some of the mysteries are solved.

Joe

When you are truly comfortable with who you are,not everybody will like you.But you won't care about it one bit.Unk.